


Keep On Loving You

by opalheart12



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Confessions of love, F/M, First Dates, Fluff, Jealousy, Light Angst, music inspired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 05:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13781172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opalheart12/pseuds/opalheart12
Summary: Abbie is going on a date with someone who wasn’t Crane. Will Crane finally find the courage to admit his feelings for her before it’s too late?





	Keep On Loving You

**Author's Note:**

> The two songs featured in this story are: Easily by Bruno Major and Keep On Loving You by Cigarettes After Sex.

The eggshells were beginning to crack and both of them knew it.

Their relationship had devolved into curt exchanges that barely lasted thirty seconds. She could always feel the quiet annoyance lying in wait when she was near him. He hardly looked her in the eye anymore. She’d been trying not to say or do anything that would set him off which was proving difficult as she didn’t even know why the hell he was so upset in the first place.

It was a Friday night and she was going on a date for the first time in God knew how long. She’d been looking forward to it all week. After the Pandora incident, she and Crane kept their distance from one another and now that their friendship was nearly nonexistent, she wanted to get out and live. Being a Witness couldn’t be her whole life.

Her hair was in a sleek halo braid around her head and she’d already applied her makeup. Now, she just needed to figure out what she would wear. She settled on an emerald green dress that came to her feet. It had deep, plunging V neckline and there were two splits on either side of the dress. It was so far away from anything she would typically wear which was why she’d picked it. Gold strappy heels she’d purchased for the occasion were still sitting in the box on her bed.

The guy she was meeting was perfect in many ways. Eli West was a CIA agent for the field office in Boston which meant he tended to be just as busy as she was. He respected her, made her laugh, and appreciated her for who she was and the life she had. They’d met a few months ago when a suspect of his had come to Sleepy Hollow. Abbie arrested them and transported them back to Boston. Eli had taken her to dinner that evening to thank her and they’d been talking ever since.

She took one last look at her outfit before smiling with satisfaction. Abbie had to admit: she looked pretty great. The gold earrings she had cascaded to the edge of her collarbone and her neck was adorned in a thing gold chain that vanished into her dress. After gathering everything she needed into a clutch, she made her way downstairs.

Abbie heard Crane before she saw him. He was in the kitchen cooking spaghetti and meatballs if the smell was anything to go by and was humming a song very loudly. It wasn’t anything she recognized and she assumed it must be something from his own time. He looked up as she descended the stairs and immediately took on the expression of a deer in headlights.

“Lieutenant. What is the occasion for which you’ve dressed?” Crane asked as he stepped further into the entryway.

“Going on a date. Don’t wait up, Crane. I think I’ll be out pretty late.” She breezed past him without stopping , taking small pleasure in the way his face seemed to lose all color. What she didn’t see was the vein in his forehead that grew strained against his skin and the way he moved the dish towel in his hand to cover his front.

She was gone before he could even reply.

* * *

 

His appetite for what he cooked had been replaced by an appetite for something else entirely. His hands ached slightly from being clenched for so long and he would give anything to stop the twitch of his jaw every few seconds.

Ichabod Crane was angry.

No, not angry; he was pissed. But it wasn’t Abbie who was the object of his anger. It could never be her. It was himself. Months and then years had gone by without him confessing his true feelings for Abbie and now she was dating people who weren’t him. Because he was too much of a coward to ever tell her the truth. He could not possibly expect her to wait around for him. No, she deserved better than that.

His inner diatribe ceased when he heard her come through the door not even an hour after she’d left. She looked mildly annoyed.

“Lieutenant, is there something wrong?” Crane asked as he saw Abbie’s annoyance deepen.

Her eyes cut toward him angrily. “He’s married.” Her voice was venomous as she put one hand on the wall to steady herself as she leaned down to take her heels off.

“Wait!” Ichabod suddenly yelled out. “Not yet.”

Abbie’s look of annoyance was replaced with one of puzzlement. “What? Why?”

An idea was forming in Crane’s mind. While he detested that Abbie had been deceived by the person she’d been about to go on a date with, he could not deny that he was thankful for this sudden turn of fate.

“Just...wait in the living room for a moment, if you please.” He instructed, his fingers twitching at his side. Abbie gave him one last look of confusion before following his instructions. Crane raced upstairs to get the portable speaker Abbie had gotten him a few months ago. He’d been using it to listen to it on something known as a Spotify through his phone.

When he came downstairs again, he synced the speaker to his phone and set about finding every candle he could to put on the dining room table. He made them both a glass of wine he found in the back of the fridge.

“Crane, what the hell?” Abbie’s voice floated into the dining room from the doorway.

He spun around, nearly startled. “I was not yet prepared for you to come in just yet.”

Her eyes narrowed as she leaned against the doorframe. She was still wearing the heels she’d left the house in and the dress she wore clung to her figure as if it were made for her.

Crane flipped through a playlist Abbie had made eons ago and pressed play. Immediately, the slow sounds of the song crept into the room. He handed her a glass of wine which she downed rather quickly while he watched in astonishment. Still, he followed her lead and drained his own glass.

“Miss Mills, would you dance with me?” Crane held out a shaking hand to Abbie.

She looked down at it, trying to ignore how nervous she suddenly felt and how her stomach seemed to want an Olympic gold medal for all the flipping it was doing.

“Okay.”

It was the only coherent word she could form at the moment.

Abbie took Crane’s hand as his other drifted to a respectable position around her lower back. She unconsciously moved closer to him as they began to sway to the song, her chest pressing lightly into his. She was sure she imagined his breath hitching when she placed her head on his chest and closed her eyes.

They both began to lose themselves in the words of the song.

_You might have tried my patience lately_

_But I'm not about to let us fail. I'll be the wind picking up your sail._

_But won't you do something for me?_

_Don't you tell me that it wasn't meant to be Call it quits, call_ _it destiny_

_Just because it won't come easily doesn't mean we shouldn't try._

Abbie realized after a while that Crane was resting his head on top of hers. Her ear was pressed up against his chest and she could hear his heart beating deliberate and slowly. He was calm.

“Why are you doing this, Crane?” She decided not to acknowledge the fact that both of her arms had now wrapped themselves around his torso as both of his had now found themselves around her waist.

“It would have been a shame for that lovely ensemble of yours to go to waste. I simply thought you deserved to still have a lovely evening as you’d intended.” Hearing his voice with her head pressed against his chest was practically a religious experience. The vibrations echoed against her ears.

She sighed as a warm feeling settled in her heart. She was in love with him. Maybe that was something she was afraid to face before the Pandora incident. She had been afraid of what that meant when she came back. Crane had certainly never brought it up. Maybe he was afraid too.

“I love you,” Abbie said. She was surprised at how easy it was to say. “I think I have for a while now.”

Crane pulled away slightly to look down at her though his arms tightened around her waist. She was struck by how very blue his eyes were.

“I was too afraid to say those words to you. I was fearful that you would wish me to no longer be part of your life anymore. I thought if I said it, if I confessed my true feelings for you, that it would ruin our bond somehow.” He had his thinking face on, the one that told Abbie he was sorting through his thoughts as he spoke them.

“And now?” She found herself somewhat afraid of the answer but hopeful at the same time.

He placed his large hands on either side of her face and she nearly shuddered at his touch. “I am no longer afraid to say that I love you more than you can possibly imagine. From the moment I awakened in this period you were everything to me. You continue to be.”

The song finished and slipped into a melodious, lazy song that made Abbie think of laying in bed with someone she loved on a rainy night.

 _I_ _meant every word I said_ __  
When I said that I love you I meant that I love you forever  
And I’m gonna keep on loving you  
Because it's the only thing I wanna do  
I don't wanna sleep  
I just wanna keep on loving you

Abbie was rendered breathless. Her mouth had gone dry. She suddenly felt detached from her body as she looked into his eyes. Was this happening to her? After all that time of trying her hardest to quash whatever feelings she had for him into the recesses of her heart?

His lips met hers and the ensuing kiss was slow and passionate, the likes of which she’d never experienced before. His hands gripped her face as if he were afraid she might suddenly drift away. Her whole body felt electrified.

Suddenly, the kiss grew more heated, urgent even, as if both of them had something to prove to the other. Her hands went to the hem of the t-shirt Crane had on began to lift it over his head. But he stopped her before she could.

“Did I do something wrong? Should we stop?” She asked, stepping back and trying not to feel too rejected. Maybe they had moved too fast. Maybe Crane had decided that he didn’t want to love Abbie anymore. Maybe—

“Don’t. You’ve done nothing wrong, my treasure. Just...are you certain you wish to proceed? I certainly will not think any less of you if you do not wish to.” His eyes searched hers for any sign of doubt.

“I want this,” she breathed out. “I want you.”

He picked her up just then and carried her up the stairs. He was certain he had never been more thankful in his life for a dress that had two splits up the thighs.


End file.
